Vodka
by GleeGeneration23
Summary: In which Ross learns the truth about why his mother left and Pete and James scramble to talk some sense in to him, Barton Fic. James/Ross/Pete bonding please read and review.


**Hey everyone this is another one shot based on the events of the latest episode. **

**Oh my god she tried to kill Ross...no words but God can we get some James/Ross bonding when that shit hits the fan. And I don't know about anyone else but I am so glad someone called Moira out on her behaviour. Emma, Charity team would be dynamic.**

**My big Ross story is coming up however I am trying to work out the plotline-a lot of it is deviating off cannon so I apologise however I should have the first chapter up soon. Until then however I am opening this to you-any Barton story one shot or multi chapter (no more than five) Pre the show when they were kids, on the show from the beginning up until now or even Next Generation Bartons please send them in-I love the dynamic in this family so I would love in my spare time to continue writing them**

**I leave you with that one-nothing is mine **

**Please read and review **

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Vodka

In which Ross finds out the truth, ends up in the exact place he was before and thinks over the course of his life. Ross/Pete, Ross/James

* * *

He's here again. Drinking on this damn step. Chas had tried to stop him nicking the vodka but Aaron had shushed her letting him leave the pub which had as usual descended into chaos.

So now he's sat in this exact spot with a bottle of vodka (not his preferred drink but the first thing he could see) a raging headache and something wrenching deep inside him.

God he hates Moira. Things were finally going well. His mother and father volatile at the best of times had settled down into something described as near normality. Finn was bouncing around being…Finn and Pete and Debbie were still as boring as ever.

And then the 'other' woman had finally got some ammunition over his mother and had delighted in telling half the pub the fact that she had tried to drown him as a child.

He should have known it was all too good to be true…the last time things had been this good it had ended with Donna…

He really should have learnt his lesson by now.

* * *

"Hey" came a voice to his left and Ross sighed because a conversation with his older brother was so not what he needed right now. He didn't even want to deal with the fact that both his father and his brother had apparently known this secret for most of his life when he couldn't even remember it.

"Go away" he said wincing as the vodka burned its way down. Pete shook his head slipping down next to him and Ross scowled "Can't-Pub's mad, Cain is trying to pull apart mum who seems to be strangling Moira with her bare hand, Charity I think is taking bets on who will win, Finn, Aaron and Robert have all disappeared somewhere, Kirin is filming the whole thing and Dad is nowhere to be found, so I'm sticking here with you"

He bent down pulling the bottle out of Ross's hands wrapping his teeth around the top and taking a huge swig before pulling a face "First thing I could nick" he said apologetically taking another swig himself and Pete snorted "No changing you" he said bitterly "Even in a crises you nick something"

Ross spat on the floor "If your gonna have a go get lost" he spat looking down "I have more important things to think about that you being disappointed in me" he paused "When was he gonna tell me about it?"

Pete sighed "If" he muttered and Ross nodded confirming what he supposed he had known since the information had been made public and wow was it only half an hour ago that it was?

He shot a look to Pete who was watching him intently "She shouldn't have come back" he muttered and Ross snorted "Why because we got so lucky didn't we?" he paused unable to control the dam that he felt slowly breaking emotion after emotion dangerously close to spilling leaving him wide open and vulnerable.

"You and Finn" he snapped at Pete's mockingly quizzical look "Sometimes I used to wonder what it was about the two of you…How dad didn't care whatever you did because he was so proud" he punctuated this with a swig of the bottle hearing the liquid swash around.

"And I guess" he said dramatically waving the damn thing around "We all now know why-I am somehow responsible for his wife leaving" he grinned manically.

"Idiot" Pete snapped back "He loved you as much as any of us-more even I think because of what happened" he paused drinking another long swig "You won't remember it" he winced at the dark look that crossed his brother's face "I do, I was there when he fished you out the bath, I was hiding as he begged and pleaded with you to open your eyes and screamed his head off…" he paused swallowing before downing more vodka "You don't know what it was like…afterwards he didn't let you out of his sight for weeks and even then I reckon it was always bubbling whenever you did stupid things-like getting shot"

In truth it did explain a lot. Pete's general attitude to things in general-the complete blank when it came to any memories, his fear of water growing up and then the reaction his father and brother had had once they had learnt who Finn was bringing to town.

"Your disappearing act didn't help either" he accused and Ross snorted glancing at the half empty bottle "Second time I was paid to leave" he practically sang back, grinning at the look of confusion on his brother's face "Daddy doesn't like the idea of upsetting the family tramp"

Pete spat out a mouthful of vodka to control the giggling and soon enough Ross found himself howling with laughter the two of them choking on air and booze and the whole joke that had been their lives for some time. It seemed cruel to be joking so much at someone's expense but when he eventually stopped it had seemed for a few short seconds that everything had been normal.

"So what are you gonna do now?" Pete asked gesturing to the bottle and Ross shrugged shivering slightly with a mixture of the cold and the adrenaline "Run?" he suggested eyes straining the dark to make out Donna's grave-God it had been simpler when it had been him and her and everything was clean and easy. "I do that best don't I?" Pete shook his head. "We'd miss you too much, Dad would, Finn would, I would" he paused "I never said that" he pointed out before leaning back against the steps.

"Your gonna have to talk about it" he confirmed "Dad's gonna want to make sure that you're alright and you understand it" he shrugged half-heartedly. "What's to understand" Ross said bitterly "My mum tried to kill me, my dad had an affair and a child with his brother's wife and my girlfriend is dead-a perfect life"

* * *

Whatever his brother was going to say next he didn't because at that moment his father had appeared out of nowhere looking a cross between relieved and panicky.

"You should go back in" he said jerking his head to the pub and Ross was about to protest (because this was actually one of those rare moments where he and Pete were having a good day) when his dad elaborated "Moira needs…something before Cain kicks off, while I have _no _doubt that your mother can handle herself I don't think he knows what the hell his wife has started" Pete sighed single handily taking the hint. He grinned at Ross before sauntering off into the blackness.

That left an awkward pause before his dad slid in next to him "You must be cold" he said into the silence and Ross shrugged "Why are you always drinking when I need to talk to you?" his dad questioned aloud and Ross blinked "Well shit does keep happening" he said dryly. "You want to talk?" his dad asked and Ross shrugged "Your gonna talk either way" he pointed out "May as well get on with it"

His dad nodded "I should have been the one to tell you about back then…" he paused "I didn't know how to" he confessed "You were too young to understand and then you got older and we started rowing so I assumed you would think I was making it up"

"You weren't gonna tell me" Ross snapped "You weren't gonna tell us about you and the 'Family Tramp' so why would you tell us anything. And don't give any crap about protecting us or all that shit. If you had been honest from the start Finn would have never have gone looking for her"

His dad nodded apparently deciding that it was best to let Ross work his way through the motions on this much to the latter's ever increasing anger. "I don't want to talk about something I don't even remember-you have Pete to confide in with that, I've done stuff so has she"

"You never drowned a child" his dad pointed out so infuriatingly calm about the whole thing "And I don't think that she would have stopped it either" and then the thin delicate thread that Ross had been clinging to snapped cleanly in too. "Maybe she shouldn't have" he snapped coating the tone in self-loathing.

If he had bothered to look up from draining the nearly empty vodka bottle he would have seen something that vaguely looked like terror sweep across his father's face. He would have seen what could only be described as for a brief second him crumpling.

But when he looked up his dad's face was half shaded with darkness and there was a long pause before he finally croaked out "You think so?" Ross shrugged locked in his hypothetical world of misery. "Things would be different for us all if I had" he confessed feeling the urge to point out the obvious "Better?"

"No" his dad snapped so much conviction in his tone that Ross felt like he had uppercut him again like he had when he had thought he was dealing drugs. "No it wouldn't have be better" he all but spat the word out his hand coming up to force Ross to look him in the eye "It would have been hell"

Ross sniffed before kicking himself sternly. Of all the times to get a grip now was the best. "Ok" he choked and his dad nodded with him seemingly pleased they were on the same page.

"Trust me you don't know how many nightmare's it gave me about you growing up-how fragile I thought you were" his dad confessed-now he was the one that was locked in his own world of misery. "I suppose that was why the two of us rowed all the time, and why it leads to you leaving. I didn't know how to raise you the same when all the time I was terrified about what would happen to you"

He shuddered "If I had been five seconds too late that day…" he twisted his face away and Ross blinked seeing he realised what the aftershocks of what his father and brother had seen that had played on their relationship. Suddenly his whole childhood seemed to be bathed in perfect clarity.

His dad had been hard to hide the fact that all along he had simply been terrified. The nagging belief that even now he still hadn't been loved the same as either one of his brothers was gone and Ross felt like screaming again.

"What am I supposed to do now?" he asked clinking the bottle on the stone ground "Am I supposed to see her and let her explain or do I leave it or…" he paused "I don't know what I am supposed to do when it comes to my own mother" he wondered missing the flinch his dad gave.

"When it comes to your mother the best thing to do at this moment In time is stay clear" his dad said grinning and Ross blinked at the fairly obvious feelings that his parents still had for each other.

God he hoped Finn didn't get any ideas.

"Let her steam tonight and then deal with her in the morning" his dad paused "Are you still gonna be here in the morning?" only he could pick up on the fragile hope that was in his voice.

"Have I ever run from a fight?" he snapped before smiling slightly "I can handle it" he said standing up only now realising how cold he was "You don't have to worry, Finn will be home and Pete probably between those two I'm not going anywhere"

"Hard not to" his dad quirked grinning "The three of you are bad enough separately let alone together"

He would have laughed but Ross couldn't think past getting home and going to sleep. He would deal with the rest of the growing problems tomorrow.

There really was, he mused to himself as he staggered back into the village his father following him at a distance something to be said about drinking in the dark-hell if his family had solved all their problems like that…

Yeah probably not.

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**I look forward to any idea's please read and review **


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